Back in 1848, did Moshe and Chenya Meltzer know, when they named their son Abraham Jacob, that he would be such a prolific patriarch? The current count is 182 descendants and most likely there are more.

Of those 182, there is not a single known casualty of the numerous afflictions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• Not a single death from the numerous Russian revolutions,
• nor from the numerous pogroms,
• nor from combat in the two world wars,
• nor from the 1918 flu epidemic,
• nor from The Holocaust!

There was a tragic accident which killed one of Abraham Jacob's daughters in 1898 and we can't belittle the grief the family felt. However, the record of long and peaceful lives of his descendants is more than just luck. At the very least, we all owe Abraham Jacob a debt of gratitude for making the trip from Volozhin to New York. No doubt it wasn't easy but it was well worth it. There's at least 181 of us who owe our lives to that effort and sacrifice.